Comparison of the effectiveness of zinc supplementation in tablets form with that of the suspension form in the treatment of acute diarrhoea

Objective: to compare the effectiveness of zinc supplementation in tablet form with that of the suspension form in the treatment of acute diarrhoea. methods: a comparative study was carried out at the liaquat university hospital,hyderabad,pakistan from october 2008 to april 2009,and comprised children aged6-24 months suffering from acute diarrhoea. the patients were divided into two groups on the basis of even and odd numbers. group a (even numbers) received dispersible zinc tablets,and group b (odd numbers) received zinc suspension. the patients were admitted for 3 days and improvement was checked at the end of 3rd day in terms of decrease in the frequency of stools/day. spss 15 was used for data analysis. results: the 88 patients were divided into two groups of 44(50%) each. overall,49(55.7%) patients were male and 39(44.3%) were female. at the end of the 3rd day 51(58%) patients improved,while 37(42%) did not. in the zinc tablet group,improvement was in 32(72%) patients compared to 19(43%) in the zinc suspension group (p<0.05).diarrhoea conclusion: the results of tablets preparation were clinically significant in reducing the duration and severity of diarrhoea. � 2017,pakistan medical association. all rights reserved.